


Unwanted Help

by lucdarling



Category: Once Upon a Time (2011), The Avengers (2012)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-12-17
Updated: 2011-12-17
Packaged: 2017-10-27 10:46:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,394
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/294967
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lucdarling/pseuds/lucdarling
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Emma Swan, newly trained bail bondsman, gets some unexpected help with a fugitive. It turns out to be more trouble than it's worth.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Unwanted Help

**Author's Note:**

> set before both tv show and film occur.

Emma's been tracking this jumper for the better part of this week and she's finally gotten a tip that's lead her to a decrepit warehouse on the other side of the harbor. She zips up her jacket tighter as she shimmies under the gate and crosses the empty parking lot.

The nearly full moon provides enough light for her to pick her way across the torn up gravel, boots crunching on the tiny rocks. It's not exactly ideal but Emma doesn't think the jumper would be listening for anyone to track him here. She reviews his file mentally as she creeps closer to the only building with lights on: Harper Rollett, five-foot-ten and the notes say he favors knives.

There's a noise behind her just as Emma reached the door and she spins around. As she's pulling her gun and hoping she can get a shot off before the bodyguard can use his radio, there's a whistling noise and something whizzes past her. The man drops with a thud and Emma sees something long and thin sticking out of his chest. She crouches over him for a better look and to check his pulse. It doesn't take long to realize the guy is dead and that it's an arrow through his heart, neatly slotting in between his ribs. Emma rolls her eyes because she doesn't need some sort of vigilante Robin Hood as backup, no matter how impressive the shot was.

“I got this covered, Robin Hood!” Emma calls out, feeling stupid but she has a hunch the bow-wielding murderer is still hanging around. “You didn't need to kill him!” There's no answer in the darkness, but she isn't really expecting one.

Her heart stops for a second then begins pounding double-time when a masculine voice speaks from not three feet behind her. “Yeah, looks like you had everything under control, sweetheart.” Emma straightens, putting a hand on her gun. The man is still in shadows but she can make out the curve of what must be his bow dangling from one hand.

“You killed him!” Emma protests hotly, pulling her weapon in one move that she hopes doesn't look like she'd practiced it too many times in front of her mirror and training it on the larger man. He puts his hands up in front of her, showing empty palms.

“Hey now, let's calm down. I was doing you a favor.” He counters. “If he'd lived or cried out in pain, that would have alerted your boy Rollett that someone's on to him.” Emma glares as he has the audacity to smirk at her. He jerks a thumb at the door next to him. “You gonna go get him or what? I can have my partner gift wrap him, if you like.” Yeah, that's definitely a smirk and Emma holsters her gun. She has a feeling he won't hurt her but she sticks to the wall when she crosses paths with him. For his part, the stranger puts his hands in his pockets and steps away, giving her more room.

“I don't need help,” Emma hisses as she slips through the door. The man shrugs and follows her anyway.

They enter the dimly lit warehouse full of shipping crates and Emma gets a good look at her mysterious savior. He's got broad shoulders and huge arms; Emma watches the muscle play as he swings his bow over his chest in a practiced move. Then she remembers the man just murdered someone less than a minute ago and didn't blink so she stops ogling him. She reaches for her handcuffs in her back pocket and the man turns to face her.

“Ah, 'fraid I can't let you do that.” He dances out of reach with a smile, holding a finger to his ear. “Yeah, just wrap it all up. Leave Rollett for Calamity Jane here.” Emma glares at him and steps closer. The man seems amused, crossing his hands behind his head. He looks utterly content to stand there and do nothing.

“I should arrest you.” Emma states, clenching the cold metal of the cuffs in her left fist. Her right hovers over the gun, debating how much damage it would do to what is obviously a Kevlar vest. She bets he has extensive training in hand to hand combat and the little she knows won't stand a chance.

“You can try,” the man corrects, giving her yet another shit-eating grin. Then his eyes move to something behind her. Emma turns around but all she gets is a flash of red hair and black leather as someone else drops down from atop the storage crates. There's a blinding flash of pain and then warm fingers remove the cuffs from Emma's loosening grasp as she slides to the floor with a gasp. A click and the familiar sound of handcuffs closing reach Emma's ears and she realizes dimly she is trapped to the door handle with her own handcuffs.

The man crouches down in front of her as his partner moves behind him, starting to drag a body out the door. Emma gets a view of some killer boots and lean legs before the man tilts her face towards him. “Hey, stay with me for a minute. Your bailee is just waiting for to be picked up, three crates forward and five to the right. He won't be going anywhere tonight. Hope you can pick a lock.” Emma glares as best she can with a pounding headache and then the man smiles as his fingers reach to the side of her head. He presses against the pressure point in her neck and Emma falls into blackness.

__ _ __ _ __

Emma wakes with a groan, head sore and legs numb. She looks down and the past few hours come rushing back: the tip she'd followed to locate Rollett at a warehouse, the sociopathic bow-carrying maniac who'd killed a guard right in front of her, her failed attempt to arrest him and the outrage of being knocked out.

She reaches for the lining of her jacket and tears at it with her teeth. This isn't the first time her own handcuffs have been used against her and it probably won't be the last. The extra key falls to the gritty floor and Emma's hand closes around it. She pockets her cuffs again as she stands, running through the potential scenarios that would lead to a pair of what she figures have to be highly trained assassins to also be at the warehouse where Rollett was. The file she had didn't say he had any accomplices but of course, he could have made new friends in Ryker's Island.

Emma counts off the crates as she passes them. Three forward and five to the right leads her to the unconscious body of Harper Rollett, wrists and ankles bound with zip ties. Emma sighs, frisking him for any weapons and then stood to get her car. This bond has already taken more time than she expected, no thanks to the impromptu deadly duo knocking her out. If she has to drag Rollett any distance, she wants it to be the shortest possible; carrying deadweight wasn't in the job description when Emma signed up to be a bounty hunter but she's learning it happens more often than she originally thought.

She steps outside the warehouse door, shivering in the wind and starts to walk back to the gate. Emma stops short as she sees her yellow Volkswagen Rabbit is parked neatly between the lines in the torn up parking lot. She approaches it cautiously, circling around it before digging her keys from her jacket and opening the door. Nothing looks disturbed and there's nothing unusual - except the arrow lying on the passenger seat. She uses the edge of her jacket to put it away in the glove box.

Getting Rollett into the passenger seat isn't an easy feat but Emma manages, only banging her shin against the open car door twice. She drives to the police station and glares at the guy leaning against the wall with a cigarette who only watches her heft Rollett up the stairs and into the lobby. Emma also gives the arrow to one of the officers she dealt with last week, but she isn't expecting any prints to turn up in the system.


End file.
